Cannon Technologies’ new commercial modular data center is a complete external grade data center building that can be almost any size or shape, capable of withstanding wind, rain, snow, seismic activity, hurricanes and desert heat yet can be specified in units as small as one standard data rack width. Due to its polyhedral construction, well-insulated to reduce solar gain, and together with close-coupled or free cooling, the Cannon incremental T4 modular data center represents usually a significantly lower CapEx and OpEx cost than bricks-and-mortar, containerized or pre-fabricated alternatives.

According to Cannon, until now, modular data centers have been either a number of racks installed in an ISO-style shipping container or in a pre-fabricated building. While both are modular, they are fairly large and expensive, and are often used as buildings within buildings rather than being stand-alone buildings.

The T4 modular data center is a complete building in its own right, able to house offices and NOCs in addition to data halls, and in many jurisdictions it needs no planning permission because, despite its 25+ year design life it can be classed as a temporary structure.

It also is easy to disassemble, transport and re-use. Without any need for cranes or special transporters and road closures for delivery, it is rapidly assembled onsite. Every panel is one-man manageable and slots together to form a building complete with data racks in place. Being relatively lightweight and with no need for cranes for delivery, it can even be deployed on building roofs. From site delivery to complete working data center takes from a few days to two or three weeks.

Although the incremental modular T4 data center is new to the commercial sector, the building system has been developed over many years for military data center applications.